


Nite Owl's Journal, March 25, 1992

by EvilMidnightLurker



Category: Watchmen (2009), Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Diary/Journal, Gen, Post-Canon, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27605234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMidnightLurker/pseuds/EvilMidnightLurker
Summary: Years afterwards, Dan reflects on the changes Adrian didn't intend to inflict on the world.
Kudos: 4





	Nite Owl's Journal, March 25, 1992

There was a time when Adrian could claim to be the smartest man on Earth and be, for the most part, believed.

It was never true. He thought big, I'll grant you, but he never really bothered to consider anything beyond the most obvious results of his actions. Rorschach's journal was just the beginning.

We were lucky there; even when people started to take the Frontiersman seriously, no one wanted to go back to the brink. We were all fully occupied putting the world back together, too terrified of how close we'd come to losing it all... and then, of course, too busy dealing with the further fallout from Adrian's scheme.

He really should have thought it through. At first I thought he had, that this was another intended result of the bombs, but then I remembered how he'd tried to stop Jon that day in Karnak. I asked Adrian about it, after he'd turned himself in to the tribunal. He was as surprised as the rest of us. It never even occurred to him that subjecting fifty million people to the Intrinsic Field Subtractor might, just might, turn up a few who could manage to duplicate Jon's first and most basic trick.

Jonathan was a true genius, I think. The new ones... they are, thankfully, limited. Random and spectacular, but a highly trained veteran can just about handle their amateur theatrics.

It's a strange new world to live in, and no one knows where it's headed. Well, Jon may, but he's long gone.

And yet, even in his absence, we're all still living in the shadow of Manhattan.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't particularly like the movie, but this kind of demanded to be written nonetheless.


End file.
